"Proper names that have become improper and uncommonly common" is how the
author Willard R. Espy described eponyms, and that is the theme for this
week's words in AWAD: words coined from people's names.

In our quest for eponyms, we are going to Europe this time, to France,
Italy, England, Greece, and Spain. And we'll meet a finance minister,
a seducer, a military officer, a philosopher's wife, and a womanizer.
All aboard!

silhouette

PRONUNCIATION:

(sil-oo-ET)

MEANING:

noun: The outline of someone or something, filled in with a solid color.verb tr.: To show in a silhouette.

ETYMOLOGY:

After French finance minister Etienne de Silhouette (1709-1767). It's
unclear how Silhouette's name became associated with this art form. Perhaps
it was alluding to his austerity measures during the Seven Years' War, as a
silhouette was a cheap way to making a portrait instead of a painting. It's
also said that he was fond of hanging these kinds of portraits in his office.
Earliest documented use: 1798.

USAGE:

"It's just a silhouette. Many of us have met shadows of people and not the people."
Nompumelelo Precious Dlamini; Memoirs of Love Lessons; Red Lead Press; 2011.